Painesville City Schools seeks grant funds to improve literacy, team up with Fairport Harbor

Painesville City Local Schools will look to partner with a neighboring district in the future to improve student reading skills.

The district has applied for a $250,000 grant from the Ohio Education Department to be used toward improving student literacy. The money would be divvied up between PCLS and Fairport Harbor schools if the two are selected to receive the grant.

Dave Bull, Painesville's director of School Improvement, said the district will find out if it will be given any funding from the state department within a few months, around springtime.

Regardless of whether the money is awarded, Bull said the districts will plan to work together.

Advertisement

"If we were to receive these funds we would start to receive for them next school year and they would be in place for two years after that as well," Bull said.

"Some of the things that we've targeted withe these potential funds would be improving the reading skills for kids age (kindergarten through third grade) ... some of the big goals of the grant is to tap into the local expertise; share our knowledge with Fairport, Fairport share their knowledge with us ... students working together, we've talked about the use of technology ... Skype to have face-to-face conversations ... make the world a little bit smaller for our students and allow them to talk to students outside of Painesville."

One idea the districts plan to look further into is "one book, one community," based off an existing program in Maple Elementary School in Painesville.

The idea is that both school districts would have their students read the same book, and then have teachers and students from each district meet up and partner together to discuss what they have read. Another important piece of the districts' plans is family literacy, Bull said.

"We want to help families help their children to be ready for school and also provide resources so that parents can provide a literacy-rich environment in the home," he said.

The district also will look to partner with area businesses and organizations for further community involvement.

Bull said there are already tentative plans, including efforts to secure additional grant funds, for a partnership with the YMCA for a summer reading program.

The program would help to "combat the summer slide," Bull said. Students who have been struggling with their reading in school often slip back when they take summer break, he said.

The program would consist of all-day summer reading at one of Painesville's buildings. Teachers would be hired on to teach the students through the summer.

That program is in the works, and is not guaranteed to be implemented.

"It will be great if we get the grant funds to do these things but a lot of the ideas we've come up with we're looking at forging ahead with or without," Bull said.